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A review by beckethm
Trust No One by Jayne Ann Krentz
1.0
DNF.
This book started with a pretty good hook. A woman finds her boss, a nationally known motivational speaker, murdered in his bed. She suffers a panic attack and has a flashback to what seems to be a traumatic event from her teen years.
So far, so good. You've got a protagonist with an interesting profession and a backstory I want to know more about, and there's a mystery to solve.
Unfortunately things went downhill fast. In chapter 2, the heroine, Grace meets her coworkers for cocktails and a conversation ensues in which they throw around the names of several possible suspects--all of which I immediately forgot because they aren't mentioned again. The coworkers are equally forgettable, which might be intentional because they didn't appear again in the seven chapters I read before giving up on the book.
After this quick introduction to the victim and suspects, Grace goes on a blind date, and this is where the story went off the rails for me. She meets Julius at a dinner party and we are led to believe neither is particularly interested in the other. However, circumstances have been arranged so that he has to drive her home. Along the way, Grace asks Julius intrusive questions about his finances, and he gives her unsolicited career advice. It's strange behavior for two people who supposedly don't care to see each other again.
It gets even stranger when Grace invites this man she doesn't really like in for tea. Then, after Julius asks point blank whether she killed her boss, and Grace shows him the door, he starts to think he wants a relationship with her. But why? There was no connection, no rapport, no apparent physical attraction.
In short, the story was choppy, the characters were bland, and the motivations for most of their actions were unclear or nonexistent. I lost interest in continuing.
This book started with a pretty good hook. A woman finds her boss, a nationally known motivational speaker, murdered in his bed. She suffers a panic attack and has a flashback to what seems to be a traumatic event from her teen years.
So far, so good. You've got a protagonist with an interesting profession and a backstory I want to know more about, and there's a mystery to solve.
Unfortunately things went downhill fast. In chapter 2, the heroine, Grace meets her coworkers for cocktails and a conversation ensues in which they throw around the names of several possible suspects--all of which I immediately forgot because they aren't mentioned again. The coworkers are equally forgettable, which might be intentional because they didn't appear again in the seven chapters I read before giving up on the book.
After this quick introduction to the victim and suspects, Grace goes on a blind date, and this is where the story went off the rails for me. She meets Julius at a dinner party and we are led to believe neither is particularly interested in the other. However, circumstances have been arranged so that he has to drive her home. Along the way, Grace asks Julius intrusive questions about his finances, and he gives her unsolicited career advice. It's strange behavior for two people who supposedly don't care to see each other again.
It gets even stranger when Grace invites this man she doesn't really like in for tea. Then, after Julius asks point blank whether she killed her boss, and Grace shows him the door, he starts to think he wants a relationship with her. But why? There was no connection, no rapport, no apparent physical attraction.
In short, the story was choppy, the characters were bland, and the motivations for most of their actions were unclear or nonexistent. I lost interest in continuing.